Bulk Up Your Smoothie Bowl With Creamy Silken Tofu

It's hard to find a singular ingredient that accomplishes everything you want in a smoothie. While you may turn to chia seeds for more protein, you'll still need a few slices of avocado to make it creamy. But if you're looking to bulk up your smoothie bowl for a thick and creamy result, you could just use silken tofu.

Yes, adding a popular meat alternative into what's supposed to be a sweet bowl of smoothie sounds a little weird. However, silken tofu tastes like virtually nothing. Just think of it as a compact, more high-protein version of soy milk. It's also soft and filled with water, so there's no need to add additional liquids to make it blend easily. In fact, it's too delicate to be cooked in most recipes, so using silken tofu in your tofu is the best way to utilize it.

Since the goal is to have a smooth, creamy smoothie bowl, there's no need to press the tofu. Just chop it up and place it right into the blender. From there, you can focus on the fruits and veggies you want in your smoothie; one cup of silken tofu will have around 18 grams of protein, so there's no need to add nut butters or protein powder.

Silken tofu's mild taste and pudding-like texture make it the best choice for smoothie bowls. Yet, if you don't have it on hand or can't find it in stores, you may opt for other tofu choices. Soft block tofu is relatively tender, like silken tofu, and also has a neutral taste. Stiffer types of tofu like medium, firm, and extra-firm are too rough to blend well.

If you can't find silken tofu, you'll need extra water to blend a firmer tofu smoothly. It also has a slightly stronger sour taste. So if you do end up using it, avoid using tart ingredients like limes, lemons, kiwis, or berries that are too sour. Instead, add a few overly sweet fruits that will mask the taste — dates, grapes, and pineapples are best for this. While banana's tendency to overwhelm other flavors in smoothies can be annoying, it comes in handy when you can't access silken tofu.

On the other hand, you can always use dessert tofu in your smoothies. The soft tofu comes pre-sweetened and can be paired with low-sugar fruits like oranges, berries, and watermelon. If it does end up being too saccharine, lemon is the key to fixing a too sweet smoothie.